KU’s Award-winning Debate Team Receives Gift

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) A University of Kansas graduate says he wanted to do something to support a team that has won five national championships and has 14 Final Four appearances.

But David Pittaway wasn’t thinking of the school’s vaunted basketball program when he donated $500,000 to the university. Instead, he wanted to honor Kansas’ nationally known debate team.

The university says Pittaway’s donation is the largest ever given to the debate team. It will be used to create an endowed professorship for the team’s head coach.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Pittaway is a senior managing director of a private equity investment firm. He was on the university’s debate team when it won one of its national championships. He says the skills he learned from debate helped him throughout his career.